Sir Thomas Englefield (ca. 1455 – 3 April 1514) was Speaker of the House of Commons. He was first elected Speaker of House of Commons in 1497. He was a Justice in Chester and both North and South Wales, and was made a King’s Councillor in 1509. In this year, he acted as an executor to the will of King Henry VII and was one of the committee appointed to determine coronation claims.With the accession of King Henry VIII, Sir Thomas Englefield became one of the key men of experience upon whom the young monarch relied in the early years of his reign. Thus, he was a natural choice to serve as Speaker – for a second term – in the first Parliament of Henry’s reign.

Roger de Mortimer, 1st Earl of March (25 April 1287 – 29 November 1330), was an English nobleman and powerful Marcher lord. He gained Ludlow Castle and other possessions through his marriage to Joan de Geneville. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1322 for having led the Marcher lords in a revolt against King Edward II in the Despenser War. He later escaped to France, where he was joined by Edward's queen consort Isabella, whom he took as his mistress. After he and Isabella led a successful invasion and rebellion, Edward II was subsequently deposed and Mortimer allegedly arranged Edward's murder at Berkeley Castle. For three years, Mortimer was de facto ruler of England before being himself overthrown by Edward's eldest son, Edward III. Accused of assuming royal power and other crimes, Mortimer was executed without trial by hanging at Tyburn.

John (de) Charleton, 1st Baron Cherleton, 1st Lord Charlton of Powys (1268–1353) came from a family of landowners at Apley Castle near Wellington, Shropshire. He had entered the service of the crown as a page, and when Prince Edward became king, Charleton remained in the royal household. He was recorded as a king's yeoman on 18 September 1307 and was styled as a knight shortly afterwards. In January 1308 he accompanied the king to France for his wedding, and in 1309 served in Ireland. In 1309 he married Hawise Gadarn (the Hardy), heiress of the Lordship of Powys from her father the last Prince of Powys, Owen de la Pole. From 1310 to 1315 Charleton built the basis of the present Powis Castle near Welshpool.

Llywelyn the Great, full name Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, (c. 1172 – 11 April 1240) was a Prince of Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually de facto ruler over most of Wales. By a combination of war and diplomacy he dominated Wales for 40 years and he was one of only two Welsh rulers to be called "the Great", the other being his ancestor Rhodri the Great.
Llywelyn was married to Joan, Princess of Wales and Lady of Snowdon who was a natural daughter of King John of England.

John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216), also known as John Lackland, was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death in 1216. The baronial revolt at the end of John's reign led to the sealing of the Magna Carta, a document sometimes considered to be an early step in the evolution of the constitution of the United Kingdom. After his death
John was buried in Worcester Cathedral. A new sarcophagus with an effigy was made for him in 1232, in which his remains now rest.

William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1147 – 14 May 1219), also called William the Marshal , was an English soldier and statesman. Stephen Langton eulogized him as the "best knight that ever lived." He served four kings – Henry II, Richard the Lionheart, John, and Henry III – and rose from obscurity to become a regent of England for the last of the four, and so one of the most powerful men in Europe.

Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), ruled as King of England from 1154 to 1189. He was also Lord of Ireland and, at various times, he also controlled Wales, Scotland and Brittany. Henry became actively involved by the age of 14 in his mother's efforts to claim the throne of England, then occupied by Stephen of Blois. Stephen agreed to a peace treaty after Henry's military expedition to England in 1153 and Henry inherited the kingdom on Stephen's death a year later.

Henry I (c. 1068 – 1 December 1135) was King of England from 1100 to 1135. Henry was the fourth son of William The Conqueror. On William's death in 1087, Henry's older brothers William Rufus and Robert Curthose inherited England and Normandy respectively, but Henry was left landless. Henry gradually rebuilt his power base and allied himself with William against Robert. Henry was present when William died in a hunting accident in 1100, and he seized the English throne, promising at his coronation to correct many of William's less popular policies.

Malcolm III (26 August 1031— 13 November 1093) was in later centuries nicknamed Canmore—"Big Head" either literally or in reference to his leadership, or "Long-neck". He was King of Scots and the eldest son of King Duncan I. Malcolm's long reign, lasting 35 years, preceded the beginning of the Scoto-Norman age. Malcolm's Kingdom did not extend over the full territory of modern Scotland: the north and west of Scotland remained in Scandinavian, Norse-Gael and Gaelic control. He is the historical equivalent of the character of the same name in Shakespeare's Macbeth.

William I (c. 1028 – 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. The descendant of Viking raiders, he had been Duke of Normandy since 1035 under the style William II. After a long struggle to establish his power, by 1060 his hold on Normandy was secure, and he launched the Norman conquest of England in 1066. In 1086 William ordered the compilation of the Domesday Book, a survey listing all the landholders in England along with their holdings.

Godiva (c 1010–1070), known as Lady Godiva, was an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who, according to a legend dating back at least to the 13th century, rode naked through the streets of Coventry in order to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation imposed by her husband on his tenants. The name "Peeping Tom" for a voyeur originates from later versions of this legend in which a man named Tom had watched her ride and was struck blind or dead.

Edmund Ironside or Edmund II ( c. 989 – 30 November 1016) was King of England from 23 April to 18 October 1016 and of Wessex from 23 April to 30 November 1016. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, his cognomen "Ironside" was given to him "because of his valour" in resisting the Danish invasion led by Cnut the Great. He fought five battles against the Danes, ending in defeat against Cnut on 18 October at the Battle of Assandun, after which they agreed to divide the kingdom, Edmund taking Wessex and Cnut the rest of the country. Edmund died shortly afterwards on 30 November, and Cnut became the king of all England.

Æthelred the Unready, or Æthelred II (c. 968 – 23 April 1016), was King of England (978–1013 and 1014–1016). He was the son of King Edgar and Queen Ælfthryth and was only about ten years old when his half-brother Edward was murdered. Æthelred was not personally suspected of participation, but as the murder was committed at Corfe Castle by the attendants of Ælfthryth, it made it more difficult for the new king to rally the nation against the military raids by Danes, especially as the legend of St Edward the Martyr grew.

Edgar the Peaceful, or Edgar I (c. 7 August 943 – 8 July 975), also called the Peaceable, was king of England from 959 to 975. Edgar was the younger son of Edmund I. In 963 Edgar reputedly killed his rival in love, Earl Æthelwald, near present-day Longparish, Hampshire, an event commemorated in 1825 by the erection of a monument called Dead Man's Plack.

Edmund I (921 – 26 May 946), called the Elder, the Deed-doer, the Just, or the Magnificent, was King of England from 939 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Edward the Elder by his third wife, Edgith.
At the age of only sixteen, he fought valiantly alongside his elder half-brother, King Aethelstan in AD 937. Together they expelled the ruling Norse from Northern England at the Battle of Brunanburgh. Edmund was therefore the first King to inherit a united England upon Aethelstan’s death two years later.

Edward the Elder (c. 874–877 – 17 July 924) was an English king. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex. He captured the eastern Midlands and East Anglia from the Danes in 917 and became ruler of Mercia in 918 upon the death of his sister.

Alfred the Great (849 – 26 October 899) was King of Wessex from 871 to 899. Alfred successfully defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest, and by the time of his death had become the dominant ruler in England. He is the only English monarch to be accorded the epithet "the Great".
According to the famous story the king had sought temporary refuge in a cowherd’s cottage and was not recognized by that man’s wife when she let him in. Alfred chose a place by the hearth to rest his legs while he cleaned his bow, and by the same fire the good wife had put some cakes to cook before going into another room. Presently the cowherd’s wife smelt burning. She ran in hastily and moved the cakes, abusing the king and saying, “Ah, you man! When you saw the cakes burning, why were you too lazy to turn them? For you are glad enough to eat them when they are all hot!”